Posts from travel (39)

Milwaukee Art Museum, designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, 2001.

I, personally, have never been to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but two weekends ago, Jw & P.Akins (the masterminds behind the construction of this blog) took off to the "Cream City" to brainstorm ideas for the growth and continuation of Sidedown and its 'subsidiaries' ;)

Check out these HIATUS pics for more of Milwaukee's sights, sounds & empty streets (?)...

(Maybe Eric can shed some light on why the city was so quiet?)...

image c/o Jw.

You'll just have to click here to find out.

In a previous BCN post, I introduced Bastardino, our loveable Tokidoki toy, who traveled with us in Barcelona...

Jw has posted a photolog of Bastardino's trip here... check it out!

images c/o either me or him... I'm not sure who took which.

It's been a busy, busy week for OrangeBeautiful - (I even worked a full day yesterday!) - and next week isn't looking any less crazy...

For now, here's just a short post w/ 2 pics from Park Guell in Barcelona... I just love the mosaics spread throughout the entire park.

And if you'd like more Barcelona pics, check out Jw's first photolog.

images by me.

It's the moment you've all been waiting for... (okay, maybe just the moment that L and EFF have been waiting for) -

the CAMPER shoes I bought in Barcelona!:

I think we counted 5 CAMPER stores in Barcelona... and, I'll be the first to admit how crazy it is that we visitied all five of them. Each store is laid out and designed in a completely different way, so it wasn't just about visiting all the lovely pairs of shoes that I was coveting.

Now, the fact that I settled on this particular pair is a bit interesting to me, since I do not, I repeat... DO NOT... wear heels. I don't know why, but I'm just not a heels kind of person. I would wear my red Pumas every day if it weren't for the fact that they look a bit unprofessional at times. But now I have these beauties...

I was debating about getting these, but then the whole Twins concept that Camper has going is so enticing... the fact that the left and right shoe of the heels are so different sealed the deal. And I love that these look like someone got bored and drew, w/ a ballpoint pen, on a pair of white leather pumps.

first & 3rd images by Jw; 2nd image c/o designws.com; last image c/o CAMPER.

(view the whole door here.)

As I mentioned earlier, I took multiple posts worth of the beautiful doors all over Barcelona... Most of these doors were grand in scale, as well as immaculately constructed - something that we have far too little of in the public spaces here in the States. The shapes and lines that I saw in these "common" doorways were like nothing I'd ever seen before - at least not in real life.

There were days when we'd just be walking around and I felt like we stopped every 10 feet at the foot of yet another amazing doorway... storefronts, apartment buildings, offices - pretty much every entrance had something beautiful and unique about it. It was hard to tell if I was impressed simply due to the fact that these aren't commonplace structures in my everyday surroundings, or if they are in fact, insanely unique, and perhaps everyone - even native Spaniards - are struck by their presence.

I have many more door photos besides the ones shown here, so I may do another BCN door post in the future... I also have plans for a framed piece using several of these images together - so, I'll certainly post about that once it's completed!

all photos by this girl.

Lite Brite Floral Passport Case, $16.00 at tinymeat.etsy.com.

Before we left for Spain, Jw picked up Travel Scrabble (!) and 2 tinymeat™ passport cases from Flight 001 on Rush Street...

Air Terminal Passport Case, $16.00 at tinymeat.etsy.com.

The intro image is the design I got... "Lite Brite Floral" - while Jw got the "Air Terminal" design (above), which - if you look closely - features some naughty airport behavior, as well as an Indian burial ground underneath the terminal!

passport cases from left to right: Air Terminal, Lite Brite Floral and For the Birds... all $16.00 at tinymeat.etsy.com.

I'm assuming this adorable little model is related to the artist... she sure is cute - and definitely makes me want to buy more, more, more! I just hope she has a good agent.

Tightwad Wallet & Smartypants Wallets, $14.00 each at tinymeat.etsy.com.

I also love the tinymeat™ wallets... especially, the designs with a word wrapped around the outside. "Tightwad" and "Smartypants" were two of my favorites, but there's also "Candyass" and several different colors with just the word "Wallet" on them ;)

Oh, and tinymeat™ has a blog, too - so check it out!

images c/o tinymeat™.

dress in a window

building exteriors

this is the sidewalk (!)

The Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe

a shop security gate

photos by emily

bedroom ceiling in one of the apartments of Casa Milá, aka La Pedrera.

Needless to say, Barcelona was incredible... I started the trip with high expectations of getting rest, seeing beautiful & inspiring things and eating amazing food. Those expectations were met... and exceeded.

I have SO many pictures to share that it's a bit ridiculous, so I'm planning on posting Albums of images periodically, that may - or may not - have a specific theme. (i.e. I ended up taking approximately 200 pictures of ironwork doors throughout the city, so that'll have to be 2 or 3 posts, at least ;)

So, here's a sampling, to get us started:

Bastardino came along for the trip... kind of like our little garden gnome that we could take pictures of in different places throughout BCN... this is his first day: here we're having our daily café con leches (espresso w/ milk) at the excellent Café Zurich... just down the street from our hotel.

There are mopeds everywhere in Barcelona. If you've ever been to Amsterdam, it's comparable to the number of bicycles that you see there - except scooters are louder, faster & more likely mow down pedestrians... but at least people try to make them fun-looking.

As I mentioned above, I took a tremendous amount of photos of the ironwork all around the city: it's on lamp posts, window grates, apartment doors... everything. And it's all beautiful.

There was a market walkable from our hotel that had several fruit stands selling these AMAZING fresh juices... not only were they delicious, they looked striking all lined up in their cups.

And more than anything else, I loved the colors of everything... even the most mundane objects and buildings were beautifully colored in a way that you just don't see anywhere in the States. I was nice to see color in something other than a Doritos ad on the side of a bus.

pics by me.